AgentRez's Season 8
by AgentRez
Summary: Just an idea for season 8...mostly just a suggestion for how the writers can work Tony in, because I hate the way they ended things with his character and really want to see the real Tony Almeida back next season! Warning: may contain minor s8 spoilers.
1. Segment 1

_I've been fleshing out this idea in my head the last couple days, and I finally got a little bit down on paper. It's not going to be a full season, just one storyline that I would like to see play out._

_For background, my season 8 takes place about a year after season 7. Jack's surgery was successful and he recovered from the prion, but he is still not 100% - his memory is not quite as sharp as it once was. Getting a new lease on life has changed Jack, and he has been working on trying to forgive himself, and he's learned that sometimes that means forgiving others too. He sees more good in people than he once did, though he still believes in absolute wrong and right. But up until this point in the season he hasn't done anything too crazy, and he's been more reserved._

_Renee has struggled over the past year to get over Larry, and she and Jack are sort of together but it's in the very early stages and they're still seeing if they can make it work. Fellow Audrey fans please don't hate me - I am still trying to accept the idea of Jack and Renee as a couple, but it makes this story work a lot better. Besides, their "relationship" is going to be tested pretty early on, as you will see by the end of the first segment._

_This starts off at some point a little bit of the ways into the season. At least one attack has already happened and they know that more is to come._

_I haven't fully fleshed out the threat, but it's something to do with the UN and a foreign middle eastern government._

_Renee is on loan to the newly reminted CTU NY from FBI as part of an inter-agency cooperation thing (similar to why Audrey was at CTU in season 5). She brought Jack in earlier today because she needed his help with something, but now she wants him to go home and not get himself in trouble._

_This first part is just Jack, Renee, and Chloe (who works at CTU NY), but I might try to work in some of the new characters that I read about for season 8, based off the brief character sketches I read. If people object on the grounds that it's too spoilery let me know. I don't know much about the new characters so it would be totally my interpretation._

_Okay, that's enough background! Here's the first segment:_

* * *

**CTU NY - CHLOE'S DESK**

Jack and Renee approach Chloe's desk, where she is typing frantically as usual.

"Chloe, where are you on cross-referencing Nazir's phone records?" Jack asks.

"Still working on it," Chloe says anxiously.

"Damn it, Chloe, what's taking so long?"

"I'm doing the best I can, Jack. I got a list of names from his recent call log, but we don't have much information on any of them. Here's what I found so far."

She hands Jack a file full of bios, a few with pictures, but most with little other information. Jack flips through it quickly and stops when he sees one profile.

"You recognize something?" Renee asks.

"Maybe. Run an expanded search on this guy, Don Cadrelli. See if there are any other possible name's he's used."

"Does his picture look familiar?" Renee asks.

"Yeah…I can't place it though," Jack says, frustrated that his memory is not as sharp as it once was.

Chloe quickly types the name into a search module.

"Okay, I've got two possible aliases, but they're not 100% confirmed."

"What are they?"

"Paul Foster and Vincent Cardiff."

Jack blinks. "Hold on a second…what was the second name?"

"Vincent Cardiff."

"Pull up the bio for that name."

Chloe pulls up a bio, but it doesn't show much.

"You know this guy?" Renee asks.

"No," Jack shakes his head. "But I've heard of him before."

"Do you remember where?" she asks gently.

"Yeah," Jack nods after a minute. His recollection is hazy but it's enough to go on.

"Who is he? What do you know about him."

"Not much…he's a mercenary who may have been connected to the Juma regime in Sangala before his attack. But I know a way we can find out more."

"What's that?" Renee asks.

Jack sighs and looks Renee in the eye. "You're not going to like it," he admits.

Chloe looks at the profile again and has a look on her face that says "uh oh. This should be interesting" when she realizes what Jack is thinking.


	2. Segment 2

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed part 1! Here's part 2, which takes place probably 10 minutes after part 1. Feedback is very much appreciated._

* * *

"Listen, I need you to talk to the warden," Jack instructs CTU Director Brian Hastings as they walk onto the roof toward a helicopter. "Make sure he understands that we need my visit to be kept completely off-book, and make sure we limit the flow of information on our end. I don't want anyone to know that I'm there to talk to Tony."

"Why's that?" Brian asks Jack skeptically, though he seems to already have an idea what the answer is.

Jack looks around to make sure nobody else is listening. "Because we might have the opportunity to use Tony to lure this guy in, and I don't want to blow that chance before we even know whether it's the right move."

Hastings sighs. "Isn't this how you always get yourself in trouble, Bauer? Your mission is simple here…go down there, find out what Almeida knows, tell us what he gives you and we'll see if we can use any of it to find Cardiff. No sting operations, understood?"

"Understood," Jack agrees. "I told you before, I'm just going to talk to Tony, see if he knows anything that can help us. But you don't close off options before you know what your options are. The fewer people who know I'm going down there to see him, the more options we have."

"Fine. But anything you do goes through me, do you understand?"

"I understand," Jack agrees.

"Good," Hastings says warily. "Agent Walker went to change…she'll be up here in a minute."

"Why is she coming with me?" Jack asks, clearly caught off guard and not happy about this news.

Hastings gives Jack a look that says "come on, Jack, what did you expect?"

"Well, for starters, you don't technically work for the government," Hastings explains. "We're asking the warden to violate at least 10 regulations…I thought it might be nice to have someone with you who actually carries a badge. And if I'm going to have to justify sending a chopper all the way out there to transport someone who technically doesn't even work for us to chase a lead that may or may not produce anything, I may as well send someone to help vet the intel so that when I do my budget sheets, I can certify that this was used for official business."

"Fine," Jack agrees reluctantly. "But I need to speak to Tony alone."

"I'll let the warden know," Brian agrees.

Jack sighs as he sees Renee walk onto the roof. Hastings sees the sympathetic look on Jack's face and takes that as his cue to leave.

"Are we all set?" he asks Jack. Jack nods. "Thanks, Brian," he says absent-mindedly, his mind focused on Renee as she approaches.

Hastings nods to Renee as he walks past her and goes back into the building.

Jack turns to Renee and places his hand on her arm sympathetically. "Listen, Renee, I know what you're doing, and take it from me, you don't want to do this," he says sympathetically, thinking back to the day Nina Meyers was released from prison and everyone had tried to get him to leave before she arrived, but he had found himself wanting to stick around for some odd reason, needing to catch a glimpse of her. He understands now why everyone tried to get him to go home before she got there.

Renee shakes off Jack's arm. She knows exactly what he means and part of her knows that he is right, but she does not want to accept that he may be right and she finds his tone and the implications of what he said to be a bit patronizing.

"Of course I don't want to, Jack," she says flatly. "You think I want to be anywhere near the man who killed Larry and over 20 of my coworkers?"

"No. And I think everyone would understand if you wanted to have one of Brian's people do this instead."

She sighs. She is about to snap that it's her job and he should just let her do it, but she realizes that Jack is just looking out for her. It's something she's not used to on the job, at least not for a long time.

"Listen, Jack, I appreciate your looking out for me, but this isn't going to work unless you let me do my job," she says firmly.

"You're right…I'm sorry," Jack agrees.

"Let's just get this over with, alright?" she says flatly, meaning it as a truce offering even though she's still feeling irrationally angry at Jack, as she has since he first said that he had to go speak to Tony about 10 minutes ago.

"Yeah," Jack says softly as they get into the helicopter, still uneasy as he senses a bit of hostility from her. He knows that this is a sore spot for her, and is painfully aware that disagreements over how to handle Tony's case had caused a rift between them once and threatened their "relationship" before it even got started. He just hopes whatever they have now is strong enough to survive this day regardless of what they end up having to do to avert this latest crisis.


	3. Segment 3

_Okay, here is part 3. It takes place 5-10 minutes after the last part. These scenes are designed to follow the real-time format, but you have to assume that some scenes happen in between (CTU doing their jobs, terrorists plotting, the president and her staff, etc). I'm writing this sort of generically so it can fit with any terrorist plot they come up with for season 8. Thanks for all the reviews…keep them coming and I will try to keep the scenes coming :) _

* * *

Jack and Renee are riding in a helicopter to the prison when Jack's phone rings.

"This is Bauer," Jack answers.

"Jack, it's Chloe."

"Chloe, what did you find?"

"It looks like even though Tony lied about Cardiff being dead, he was telling the truth when he said that Cardiff had a direct line to the Juma regime and was involved in the planning of the White House attack. He was picked up by Border Patrol a few hours after the attack when he was trying to sneak into Canada, but the vehicle that was transporting him to the FBI headquarters in upstate New York near the border was ambushed and the two agents transporting him were killed. At the time they thought Cardiff was killed too, but now it looks like he just escaped and started using another alias."

"Did Tony have anything to do with him escaping?"

"It doesn't look like it," Chloe answers. "The ambush happened after Tony was taken into custody. And so far, other than the fact that he worked with Cardiff on Emerson's crew, I couldn't find anything linking Tony to the shooting at the UN or the incident in the tunnel. Unless he managed to cover his tracks completely I don't think he had anything to do with this."

"You haven't found anything linking Wilson's group to today's events either, right?"

"No. Also, I found something weird in Cardiff's bio. It looks like information was deleted from his file sometime within the last two months…I can't seem to find a way to retrieve the missing info, but I can tell from the missing file headers that something is missing."

"Alright, that makes sense. Whoever is behind today's attacks probably found a way to get Cardiff out because he knew too much. We need to figure out who had access who could have modified Cardiff's file…we may have a leak in CTU."

"Could be. Or it could be that it took a while after CTU was reopened to get them to invest in a firewall with DES encryption."

"What are you saying? That in between that time someone could have hacked in?" Jack asks, concerned.

"Yeah, it's possible. I couldn't believe how vulnerable the system was when I first started at CTU NY."

Jack sighs, frustrated. "Is there anything about Cardiff in the information Tony gave us after he was arrested?" he asks.

"No, not beyond what he had already told us about Cardiff's connection to Juma. But most of the questions Tony answered were about Wilson and the group he was tracking. They didn't ask him much about Cardiff or anyone else on Emerson's crew."

"Damn it," Jack says, exasperated. He knew he should have handled Tony's questioning himself instead of letting Renee convince him it was better to let the FBI handle it.

"I wonder if this means Tony knew the White House was the target," Chloe muses.

"No, I don't think so," Jack answers. "His goal at that point was to stop Hodges, and by extension Juma and Dubaku. If he knew the target he would have told me."

"Good. Because that would mean it was his fault Bill's dead. I mean, I know he's responsible for a lot of other people's deaths, but somehow I feel like it would be worse if he were responsible for Bill...does that make any sense?"

"Yeah, it does," Jack says sympathetically. "Listen, Chloe, can you put Brian on the phone?"

"Um, yeah, let me transfer you."

Renee looks at Jack curiously. Jack doesn't tell her anything.

"Hastings," Brian says on the other end of the line.

"Brian, it's Jack. Listen, I need you to speak to the President. I need you to get Tony a written guarantee of immunity from further prosecution for anything he gives us on Cardiff."

He glances cautiously at Renee, who gives him a disgusted look.

"I don't know, Jack," Brian says warily. "You already got him a pretty good deal…I don't think the president's going to agree to this even if I was willing to ask."

"Damn it, Brian, I'm not asking for her to reduce his sentence. I just need him to be able to cooperate, and he can't do that if he has to worry that he could say something that could void the agreement he made."

"Even if we do that, he's got no incentive to talk unless we offer him something."

"Let me handle that," Jack insists. "Please, just call the President, or put me in touch and I'll talk to her myself."

"I'll take care of it," Brian agrees.

"Thank you. Let me know when it's done, and have a copy faxed to the prison for my eyes only."

"Alright," Brian agrees.

Jack hangs up and looks at Renee, who is looking out the window trying not to let Jack see her anger. She knows Jack did what was necessary, but she still can't bring herself to fully trust him on this.

"You alright?" Jack asks.

"I'm fine," she insists.

"You don't look fine. I don't blame you for being upset, but you know we have to do it this way. I think I can get Tony to cooperate but not if he has to worry about jeopardizing the deal he made."

"I understand that, Jack. But what happens if he doesn't cooperate? Are you going to ask the president to give him an incentive?"

"I don't know," Jack admits. "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. But I don't think it will come to that. I got through to him six months ago and I think I can get through to him now."

"Come on, Jack. Are you really naive enough to believe that you convinced him to do the right thing? I don't know exactly what happened when you spoke to him, but from where I'm sitting, it looks like you let him manipulate you into helping him cut a deal."

Jack sighs. He considers correcting her, but he realizes that she wouldn't like the truth any better than her own interpretation. And for all he knows, she could be partially right.

"I understand that's how it looked, but it's more complicated than that," he says softly.

"So now what? You really think you can convince him to tell us whatever he knows about Cardiff out of the goodness of his heart?" she asks sarcastically.

"Maybe," Jack says softly. "I don't want to sound like I'm in any way justifying what he did because I'm not. But I know that he didn't set out to kill innocent people. When he set out to go after Wilson, I don't think he ever intended to go as far as he did. When I spoke to him six months ago, he wouldn't come out and say it, but I could tell that he had some regrets. He was on a mission and he got obsessed…once he was forced to step back I think he started to see the bigger picture. I know you think that I helped him negotiate for more than he deserved…"

"It's not a question of what I think, Jack," Renee cuts him off. "You convinced the US Attorney to charge him with second-degree murder of two federal agents when he helped orchestrate the murder of over 20 and attempted to launch a biological attack on the DC Metro."

"He had information that we needed," Jack insists. "Information that helped lead to the conviction of a man who had killed thousands of Americans and was plotting to kill tens of thousands more. Besides, you admitted that you didn't have enough evidence to convict him for most of that."

"I understand that it was necessary," Renee says bitterly, staring out the window as she blinks back tears. "That doesn't make it any easier to swallow."

"I know," Jack says sympathetically, understanding better than anyone can. "Believe me, I know that."

"Do you, Jack?" Renee mutters under her breath.

"Excuse me?" Jack says warily, not liking where this is going.

"Come on, Jack. I know that he was your friend, that you considered him almost like a little brother. I don't doubt that you did what you thought was best for the country, but I couldn't help but feel like you were protecting him."

"He lost his family because of me," Jack says defensively, inadvertently acknowledging that Renee may be right.

"I understand that, Jack," Renee says with exasperation. "Nobody disagrees that what happened to him was a tragedy. But what about all the families he destroyed? What about all the husbands and fathers he had his associate lure into a building wired with C4? What about the FBI agent he shot point blank whose wife had just given birth to a son? Doesn't it bother you that that kid is going to have to grow up without ever knowing his father?"

Jack looks at her angrily, his look saying "who the hell do you think you are to preach to me about what it's like to lose a member of my family?" Renee realizes she crossed the line and looks at Jack apologetically.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean…" she says hesitantly, waiting anxiously as he seems to process and struggle to control his anger. After a minute he gets his emotions under control and brings himself to look at her. "I know that I don't need to tell you what it's like to lose a family member…I guess I have no right to judge you," she says apologetically.

"No, it's alright. I understand why you're upset, believe me. I know it doesn't seem fair and it's not, but Tony's still going to pay a price. Ten years is a long time."

"Not long enough," Renee says bitterly.

"I know," Jack says sympathetically, but Renee can't help but feel like he is just saying what she wants to hear. She looks at him skeptically, knowing that in his heart he laments what happened to Tony more than he laments the injustice of his abridged punishment. She can tell that deep down he wonders if there's anything he could have done to save Tony from himself and that part of him hopes that somehow he still can.

This has been a source of frustration for Renee since Jack got involved with Tony's case and insisted on trying to convince Tony to cooperate with the FBI's efforts to convict Alan Wilson. She knows Jack is conflicted about what Tony deserves despite his assurances to the contrary, and sometimes she can't help but think that in spite of everything Jack still views Tony as the victim and is still looking out for his old friend. It bothers her to think that Jack might sympathize with the man who murdered her partner, and it's been especially frustrating since she and Jack started seeing each other. She wants Jack to see Tony the way she sees him - as a cold, heartless monster who murdered innocent people without any regard and would do it again in a heartbeat if given the chance. She understands why Jack can't bring himself to accept that, and deep down she knows it might not even be entirely true. But she can't help but feel betrayed by Jack's ambivalence and question whether Jack is really on her side. She just hopes the decisions they have to make today won't drive them apart again.

* * *

_If you have a minute please let me know what you think. I welcome honest suggestions, so don't be shy. Tony will probably be in the next scene after this one, so stay tuned._


	4. Segment 4

_Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far. The feedback really helps me stay motivated to keep writing, so keep it coming (constructive criticism as well as praise welcome). Several people have asked when Tony was actually going to be in this, so at long last, here he is!_

_

* * *

_"He'll be here in just a minute," the warden says to Jack. "Brian Hastings from CTU said this needed to be kept secret, so I'll set you up in my office."

"Thank you," Jack says appreciatively. "While I talk to Tony, can you give Agent Walker access to his records? We need to know about any visits he's had, phone calls he's made or received, and any packages or letters he's sent or received since he's been here."

"Sure thing."

"Thank you. Remember, we need to do this without there being any record...if you have a program that monitors access to prisoner records shut it off."

"Yes, sir."

Jack sighs as he sees a guard escort Tony into the warden's office in handcuffs and shackle him to the desk. He wonders if Renee is right - he can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Tony, as wrong as he knows that is. Maybe Tony has used that to his advantage. But Jack doesn't think so.

He looks at Tony now and realizes that he seems different. Gone is the defiant, angry man who was dragged away screaming insults at Jack to make himself feel better. Gone is the bitter apathy Tony first showed when Jack came to talk to him six months ago. Now Tony's eyes show nothing but emptiness and hopelessness. Suddenly Jack doesn't quite know how to begin or what to say to him.

Tony looks surprised when he sees Jack enter the office. "Jack...what are you doing here?"

Jack doesn't answer right away. He tries to gage if Tony is genuinely surprised to see him or whether he has an idea what this is about. "I need to talk to you," he explains, not wanting to give away information until he gages how much Tony knows.

"Yeah, I figured that much out, Jack," Tony says with a scoff. "You're going to have to be a little more specific."

"Did you hear about what happened this morning at the UN?" Jack asks.

"Yeah...I'm surprised you're not right in the thick of it, trying to track down the people responsible."

"That is what I'm doing," Jack says warily.

"Hold on a second - you think I had something to do with this?" Tony says defensively.

"No, I don't," Jack says firmly. "Chloe already ran your name and all the aliases you used through everything and they came up clean. But we think you might have some information that can help us. I can't offer you a reward for cooperating...there are a lot of people who thought you got off too easy as it is. But I have a written guarantee of immunity from the president that anything you tell us that could help us figure out who's responsible will not be used to incriminate you or increase your sentence. Nothing you say will be used against you, and you can help us save lives."

Jack looks at Tony meaningfully, hoping against hope that what he says is getting through. He is relieved when Tony responds.

"You don't need to preach to me, Jack, alright?" Tony says with mild irritation. "I get it. If I knew anything about what's going on today I would tell you."

Jack eyes him carefully, trying to figure out if he is telling the truth.

"I know you would," Jack says softly, not entirely sure that's true but wanting to appeal to Tony's better angels by showing that he still has faith in him to do the right thing. Tony looks surprised to hear him say that.

"So what's this about?" Tony asks. "Some sort of a background match?"

Jack decides that Tony probably doesn't know anything about the threat and that he's going to have to give him more information if he wants to get anything useful out of him.

"Yeah, something like that. We traced several calls on the cell phone of one of the terrorists from the tunnel bombing to someone you said you worked with on Emerson's crew, a man you identified as Vincent Cardiff."

"Cardiff?" Tony asks, surprised. "I thought you told me he was picked up by the border patrol," Tony says to Jack after Jack has finished explaining the situation.

Jack studies Tony's expression carefully, trying to make sure he's not playing him before sharing more.

"Apparently not. It looks like the border patrol vehicle transporting him to the FBI that night was ambushed and the agents transporting him were killed. He then disappeared and started using another alias, Don Cardelli." Jack looks Tony square in the eye. "Tony, do you have any idea who might have helped him escape?"

Tony thinks for a minute, then shakes his head. "No," he answers, looking genuinely stumped. "You said this happened after I was taken into custody?"

"Yeah, a few hours later," Jack answers, still trying to figure out if Tony is really trying to help him figure this out or just trying to pry information out of him.

"That doesn't make sense," Tony says. "He was Emerson's point of contact with Juma...he helped get us the gig building the CIP device for Dubaku. But I don't think he knew anything about Starkwood or the bioweapon or Wilson's group. As far as I know, anyone who would have needed to prevent him from talking was either in custody or dead at that point."

"Is it possible that he had already signed onto another job by that point, something that had something to do with what happened this afternoon?"

"Yeah, it's possible. I didn't know he was involved with anything that happened today until you told me, but like I said, it doesn't make sense that anyone in Wilson's group would have broken him out of custody at the time you described...as far as I know his part in that operation was done. So it makes sense that he could have picked up another job by then...it wasn't uncommon for Emerson to have us working on multiple things at once."

"But you have no idea who else Cardiff might have been working with?"

"Not on this, no. All I know about what's happened today is what I've seen on the news and what you told me. But I can give you some names of people he might have worked with. We had a client a couple years ago who was involved with smuggling weapons to India...Cardiff worked with us on that. Maybe that will turn up some leads."

"Alright. Can you write them down here so I can have Chloe cross them with names on the watchlist?"

"Yeah," Tony agrees.

He writes down some information.

"Thank you, Tony," Jack says genuinely. He is still wary, but feels fairly certain at this point that Tony is telling the truth, and he has to respect the fact that Tony gave him the information and didn't try to leverage it. It's more than most people in his situation would do.

Tony nods. "Do me a favor and let me know if any of this pans out, okay?"

"Yeah," Jack agrees. "Listen, I'm going to go call Chloe now...stay here in case we have any follow-up questions, alright?"

Tony chuckles. "Not like I have much choice, Jack," he says, indicating the shackle on his leg.

"You're right...I'm sorry," Jack says, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Tony hesitates for a second as Jack walks toward the door, then decides to speak up.

"Listen, Jack, there might be an easier way to get to Cardiff," he throws out. Jack turns around and looks at him skeptically.

"What's that?" he asks.

"Use me to lure him in."

"How?" Jack asks warily.

"You said you have a phone number for him, right?"

"Yeah, that's how we got his name, from the phone of the man who detonated the bomb in the Lincoln Tunnel."

Tony sighs, knowing his plan is going to be a tough sell. "Modify the databases to look like I received some kind of payoff from whoever was involved in this morning's attack. Then take me to a pay phone near here and make it look like I was being transported to CTU for questioning and I escaped. I'll call Cardiff and tell him CTU is onto him and he better hide...make it look like I killed one of their agents and used his ID card to hack into the CTU servers. If I can keep him on the phone for a minute you can get his location. Unless they've changed the way they do it in the past year, I know how we used to encrypt the locations on our phones, so I should be able to help you decrypt it."

"And what's to stop you from actually escaping?" Jack asks skeptically.

Tony sighs. "I guess my word doesn't mean much to you anymore," he says glumly.

Jack chuckles with disbelief. "After what you pulled?"

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that. I don't blame you for not trusting me, but think about this logically. Even if I cared enough to escape, I'd need help getting outside the perimeter, and who's going to help me with that?"

Jack looks confused. "You're not the only one I betrayed, Jack," Tony continues. "For the five years before I was arrested, everything I did was about uncovering the person responsible for Michelle's death and hunting him down. I never had any other agenda, and everyone I've dealt with was someone I was using in one way or another to achieve my goal. So it's not like I have any friends left on either side...let alone anyone who would stick their neck out to help me escape. Besides, it's not like I have a lot to escape for," he says sadly.

Jack sighs. "And what's in it for you? I already told you, you're not going to get a better deal than the one you got."

"I know," Tony says firmly.

"Then why are you so eager to help?" Jack asks.

Tony sighs, looking down at the table. "Because you were right," he says softly.

"Right about what?" Jack asks, even though he has a pretty good idea what the answer is.

Tony takes a deep breath. "When I started out trying to find out who was ultimately responsible for Michelle's death, I never thought I would have to go as far as I did to get the job done. When I started out I thought I was doing this for her, but once I started having to break the rules I forced myself not to think about whether she would want me to do what I was doing...I was so determined to succeed that nothing else mattered. And as much as I haven't wanted to admit this to myself, the truth is, you were right when you said I let my desire for revenge get the best of me...I guess I was so determined to take down Wilson at all costs that I didn't stop to think about the fact that I was doing to other people what he had done to me. I guess I convinced myself that more people would die in the long run if I didn't do what I did, but you were right when you said that was just my way of justifying it to myself. And you were right..."

Tony chokes up a little as he struggles to articulate a realization that has been painful to admit even to himself, let alone say out loud. "You were right that Michelle...if Michelle were here she'd be so disgusted she probably couldn't even look at me," he says softly, struggling not to cry.

Jack sighs, finding it hard not to be sympathetic. But at the same time he is angry. Does Tony really think he can do something heroic and it will make everything else he did go away?

"There's no easy shortcut to redemption, Tony," Jack says softly. "Learning to live with yourself is a long and painful process and if you think this is going to make you feel better..."

"This isn't about making myself feel better, Jack."

"Then what's it about?"

"It's about doing what Michelle would have wanted me to do. You see, the morning she was killed, she was getting in the car to go to CTU," Tony explains.

"CTU? Why was she going there?" Jack asks.

"She wanted to help after we heard about the Palmer assassination on the news. She figured we had been there during the other attempts on his life so maybe we could help. I tried to talk her out of it, because I was afraid to go back to that world. I had seen you try to leave CTU several times only to get sucked back in and lose everything because of it, and I didn't want that to happen to us. I figured I had done my part...Michelle was four months pregnant at that point, and all I wanted to do was protect her, but she still wanted to step up to the plate when she thought there was something she could do to help. And I know that if she were here, she would want me to step up to the plate and do what I can to help."

Jack sighs. "Even if I were crazy enough to trust you, there's no way I could get CTU to go along with it," he says.

"Oh, come on, Jack," Tony says with a chuckle. "When has that ever stopped you before?"

Jack chuckles slightly. Tony does have a point.

"Look, you're the one who told me six months ago that it wasn't too late to honor her memory," Tony continues. "You're the one who said that it wasn't too late to be the man I would have wanted my son to look up to. You're the one who reminded me that if I did what I could to help save innocent lives I could save others from going through the pain that you and I went through. And I know you didn't come all the way out here just to ask me a few questions that you could have asked over the phone. You made sure to keep your visit a secret because you thought you might be able to use me to lure in Cardiff. We both know it's the best move you've got. Let me help, Jack," Tony pleads, looking Jack square in the eye.

Jack sighs. He knows Tony is right about it being the right move, if he could only trust his old friend. He knows he shouldn't, not after everything Tony did to manipulate and deceive him and exploit his trust. But despite everything, he can't help but believe that this time Tony is telling the truth.


	5. Segment 5

_Here's a little more. This part is mostly just establishing stuff. I should warn that two new characters feature prominently in this part, and I did interpret them in part from the one-line descriptions I have read of the new characters, so if that bothers you don't read this. I figure it will be interesting to see how my interpretations compare once we actually meet these characters in season 8._

* * *

Jack is standing in a secluded area near the warden's office talking to Brian Hastings and Agent Cole Ortiz, the head of Field Ops for CTU NY, on the phone.

"I don't understand," Brian says. "Why can't we just reprogram a cell phone to make it look like it's coming from a nearby pay phone so Almeida can make the call from where he is?"

"We can," Jack answers. "But if we do that we give up an opportunity."

"What kind of opportunity?" Hastings asks.

"Cardiff is most likely a mercenary, working for whoever's behind today's attacks. If Tony can convince him that he really escaped and needs help, we may have a chance to find out who he's working for."

"How?"

"By making it look like Tony killed the agents transporting him and stole their COMM equipment. We can modify the equipment so that they think they're linked into CTU's communications, but we can hide a microphone inside so that we can hear what's going on."

"Hold on a second. You're not seriously suggesting that we trust Almeida to pull off some kind of undercover operation, are you?" Hastings asks incredulously.

Jack sighs, knowing it is going to be tough to convince them. "Please, just hear me out. I know that I mistakenly trusted him a year and a half ago and a lot of people died as a result. But the circumstances are different today than they were then. We now know what Tony's end game was, and we know that he was working alone. Agent Walker is checking the records right now, but as far as we can tell it doesn't look like he's had any contact with the outside world besides me and a few FBI interrogators who came to question him about Alan Wilson. Chloe crossed his name with everyone we know to have been involved with today's attacks and it came up clean. It's highly unlikely that he had anything to do with what's happening today, and assuming you haven't found any other leads and don't have anyone else who's put in time undercover with Cardiff, I think this is our best option."

"How do you know this isn't just a ploy so he can escape?" Ortiz asks.

"I don't," Jack admits. "But I don't think so. Tony knows how lucky he is to be getting out of there in eight and a half years, and I don't think he'd be stupid enough to jeopardize that. Besides, formulating a plan to escape from prison requires motivation and determination that I don't think he has right now. And we can establish a perimeter that makes it pretty difficult for him to escape even if he tries."

"So what, you think he offered to do this because he wants to try to make up for what he did before?" Hastings asks.

"Something like that, yeah. I know it sounds suspicious, and believe me, I'm skeptical too. I know that he exploited my trust and a lot of people got hurt as a result. But last year, I'm ashamed to say that my gut told me something was off, and I ignored it because I wanted to believe him."

"What are you saying, Jack?" Ortiz asks.

"I'm saying that this time, my gut says he's telling the truth."

Hastings sighs. "I don't know, Jack…you're asking me to go out on a pretty big limb here."

"I realize that, Brian. Look, it's your call. But you asked me to come in today to advise you how to handle this crisis. And my advice is that this is the best chance we have to find out who's responsible for this morning's attacks and stop them before they do any more damage."

"I think Jack's right," Ortiz agrees. "I think the potential upside of this outweighs the risks."

"If I did agree to this, how would we make it look like Almeida killed his CTU escorts without anyone actually getting killed?" Hastings asks.

"We can use the bodies of the agents who were killed this morning in the standoff at the United Nations."

"For Christ's sake, Jack, their families are coming to pick up their bodies. You want me to tell the wives who just lost their husbands that they have to wait to claim the bodies because they're being thrown around as bait for a terrorist?"

Jack opens his mouth to respond, but Ortiz cuts in before he gets a chance. "I think there might be a better option," he interjects.

"What's that?" Jack asks.

Ortiz hesitates for a second, a little nervous about what he is about to say. "Look, Brian, I've been trying to figure out how to tell you this for a while, but Dana and I have been seeing each other for a while now."

"You mean Dana Walsh, our systems analyst?"

"Yeah," Ortiz admits.

"Putting aside the fact that this is a violation of CTU protocol, why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I think we might be able to use it. Instead of just using dead bodies, we can make it look like I was transporting Almeida and he took me hostage. When he calls Cardiff, he can say that he overheard me talking to Dana on the phone and realized he might be able to use me against her. That way he's giving Cardiff more of an incentive to bring him into the operation, and I'll be in place to help control Almeida, and their communication with Dana will keep CTU in the loop about what they're doing even if he decides to disable the tracker."

Jack sighs. He knows that he would have come up with the same idea if he were in Ortiz' shoes, but somehow it seems different when it's someone else putting himself on the line. "Cole, I'm not comfortable with that."

"Why not?"

"Because even though I don't think Tony's plan is to escape, I think it's possible that he might panic at the thought of going back to prison and try to make a run for it, and if you were in his way he'd have to neutralize you. Not to mention the possibility that Cardiff will ask Tony to kill you to prove his loyalty, and even if he's trying to do the right thing, he may have no choice but to comply to maintain his cover."

Ortiz chuckles. "Look, I appreciate your concern for my safety, but this is my job. If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you do this even if it was dangerous?"

"Probably," Jack admits.

"Alright, then let's do it. I'll start heading your way now…we can discuss the logistics while I'm en route," Ortiz says.

"Wait a second. I haven't agreed to this yet," Brian protests.

"Look, we don't have time for you to hem and haw about this. I'm going to start heading out there now…it takes about 20 minutes by helicopter. If you want to stop me, go ahead," Ortiz challenges. Jack chuckles to himself, amazed at how much Ortiz reminds him of himself.

"Listen, let's keep this to as few people as possible," he suggests. "Bring Dana up to speed so she knows her role. But other than her and Chloe, I don't want anyone else to know about this yet."

"Why not?" Hastings asks.

"It's just safer that way…trust me. Keep this on a need-to-know basis."

"Alright," Brian agrees. "Is Agent Walker there with you? Have you brought her up to speed yet?"

"No, she's still with the warden going over Tony's records." He sighs heavily. "She's not going to be happy when she hears about this," he says glumly, not looking forward to that conversation.

* * *

Hope you liked this. I'll have more up soon. As a teaser, here are a few fill-in-the-blanks for the next chapter. Feel free to review or PM me with your guesses of what the missing words are and who says them to who.

1. "How could you ever think of ________ _______ again?"

2. "I was afraid that if I pushed too hard...I was afraid he would try to _____ ______."

3. "Don't you think there are some people who are just beyond ________?"


	6. Segment 6

_Here's more. Sorry for the delay. Reviews are always appreciated, and they keep me writing. I bolded the lines that were part of the fill-in-the-blanks at the end of the last chapter, and the missing words are underlined, for anyone who was trying to guess them. And there are more fill-in-the-blanks for next chapter at the end, so enjoy. Also, I noticed that the producers have changed Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character name from Cole Davis to Cole Ortiz, so I updated my fic to reflect that. So the Agent Davis I had in this story is now Agent Ortiz, but it's the same person._

* * *

"Jack, are you out of your mind?" Renee asks with disbelief.

"Probably," Jack admits. "But I still think it's the best plan we've got."

"Putting aside all the people he killed and the thousands he tried to kill, he lied to you, he tried to kill you, he kidnapped your daughter, for heaven's sake."

Jack looks Renee square in the eye. "I know what he did," Jack says firmly, almost hostilely.

**"How could you ever think of trusting him again?"**

Jack sighs. "I don't trust him," he answers. "Not like I did before, at least. But we have to look at the situation objectively. We know that Tony was working alone to get to Wilson. Chloe crossed his name and all the aliases he used with everyone we know might have been involved in today's attacks and they came up clean. We know that the only communication he's had with the outside world has been with me and a few of your agents who questioned him about Wilson's group."

"Actually, the warden checked and he had two other visitors. One was the wife of one of the agents he killed. She asked to speak to him and he agreed...she came all the way from Texas and he backed out," she says with disgust.

Jack sighs, disappointed but understanding that Tony wasn't ready. "Who was the other visitor?" he asks.

"An Imam named Gohar...isn't he the Imam who helped us find the two brothers?"

"Yeah," Jack nods.

"Any idea what he was doing here?"

Jack nods. "I asked him to come speak to Tony...he helped me put some things in perspective and I thought maybe he could help Tony."

"I see," Renee acknowledges. She understands why Jack still cares about Tony and wants to try to help him but it's still hard to swallow.

"What about the rest of the records?" Jack asks. "Has he talked to anyone besides me by phone or had any other contact with the outside world?"

"Nothing interesting in the phone logs…it looks like you're the only one he's talked to over the phone. He sent one e-mail to a Danny Dessler…"

"Michelle's brother," Jack finishes.

"Yeah. He was the one who went through their house after it looked like they had both been killed, so Tony asked him to send him his wedding ring and a couple photographs. That's the only package he's received since he's been here. His disciplinary record was clean except for one recent incident."

"What happened?"

"He gave the correctional officer a little bit of a hard time when he was told he had to leave the TV room and go back to his cell, and then another officer caught him using a radio in his cell after lights out. The warden was pretty sure he just wanted to finish watching or listening to a baseball game."

"When did this happen?" Jack asks.

"About a week ago…" Renee checks her notes. "October 15, last Tuesday."

"The night the Cubs won the pennant," Jack realizes.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Did the warden say anything about his emotional state?" he asks.

"Not too much…Tony hasn't been here that long. They kept him at the holdover facility in DC for a while after he accepted the agreement and received his sentence so the FBI could question him."

"Yeah, I know," Jack says.

"The warden said Tony mostly keeps to himself and doesn't talk to the other inmates much. Until the incident last week he hadn't caused any problems. He did say that Tony's been talking to the priest who comes here as a volunteer to counsel inmates," she notes.

"Good," Jack says softly, seeming heartened by this news.

Renee sighs. "You really think he's changed, don't you?" she asks Jack.

"Yes, I do," Jack responds. "Not overnight, but he's getting there. The last time I talked to him was about 6 months ago and I could tell he had some regrets then, but today was the first time he was actually able to admit that he was wrong."

Renee sighs, exasperated. "Damn it, Jack, are you really so blinded by guilt and misguided loyalty that you can't see how he's manipulating you? He said the same thing a year and a half ago, that he had done bad things that he regretted and was trying to make up for it. You know that expression 'fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?' How can you not see that that's what's happening here?"

"The circumstances were different then," Jack insists.

"Fine. Then if he's really changed and he's so eager to help the country now, why didn't he just give us what he had collected on Wilson and his group to begin with? Why did he demand that the US Attorney cut him a deal first?"

Jack sighs, knowing Renee is not going to like the answer.

"He didn't," Jack admits.

"What?" Renee asks, bewildered.

"He didn't demand that the US Attorney cut him a deal," Jack explains reluctantly. "When the president called to see how I was doing after the surgery, she told me that they couldn't use any of the information you had obtained from Wilson to convict him or any of the others because of the way you got it and that they were going to have to release him because they didn't have enough admissible evidence to file charges. I reminded her that if they released him now he'd disappear and they'd never get another crack at him, and I told her that before Tony was taken into custody, he told me that he had been tracking Wilson and his group and had eventually planned to hand in the evidence he collected. I didn't know if he had gotten far enough to have anything useful, but I figured it was worth a try. So she gave me permission to work with the US Attorney to come up with a deal we could offer him, and then I had to convince Tony to take it."

Renee looks a little shell-shocked, and takes a moment to process before responding.

"So you're telling me that cutting him a deal was your idea," she says angrily, her voice conveying her feeling of betrayal.

"Sort of," Jack admits. "It's complicated."

"Putting aside the question of why on earth you would go out of your way to help him cut a deal after everything he did to you, why would he need convincing? Shouldn't the prospect of Wilson being released if he didn't cooperate motivate him, not to mention the fact that he almost certainly would have faced the death penalty?"

Jack sighs. "It's not that simple," he explains." After they cut Charles Logan a deal, Tony lost faith in the government's ability to administer justice fairly, and he decided he had to take matters into his own hands. For five years he had been working on his own, not trusting anybody, and it wasn't easy for him to essentially give up whatever control he had left by handing over the information he had and trusting others to use it properly. You remember how he was refusing to talk to a lawyer or the US Attorney or any of the FBI interrogators you sent? How he didn't seem to care whether he got the death penalty or not? That's because he was demoralized, and he felt like he had nothing to live for...honestly, I think the death penalty sounded like more of a relief to him than something to be afraid of. In an emotional state like that I knew I wasn't going to convince him to care about his own life or the lives he could save if he cooperated...I knew that he had become so desensitized to the consequences of what he was doing by building a wall around his emotions to protect himself from the pain of losing his family, and that the only way I could get through to him was to break through that wall by any means necessary. But I was afraid that if I pushed too hard without giving him any hope that he'd ever have a chance to change things or make amends, I was afraid...**I was afraid he would try to kill himself**," Jack admits, the emotion showing in his voice.

Renee becomes slightly more sympathetic but remains unconvinced.

"Jack, I know how tough this is for you, and I know that you feel like you got a second lease on life and maybe that's making you more inclined to believe in forgiveness and second chances. But don't you think...**don't you agree that there are some people who are just beyond redemption?"**

"Maybe," Jack says somberly. "I honestly don't know. But this isn't about giving Tony a chance to redeem himself. This is about doing everything we can to stop these terrorists before they strike again. They've already detonated a bomb in the Lincoln Tunnel and attempted to assassinate a visiting head of state. Right now, Cardiff is our best lead, and everything we know about this guy tells us that he will not break easily and that the best way to deal with him is to put someone undercover. It would be a lot easier if CTU or the FBI had someone who had put in time with him or one of his associates but they don't. Tony is the only one who can do this. Nobody understands better than me how hard this is for you, but you need to put your emotions on hold and look at this situation as if Tony's actions last year didn't affect you personally."

Renee sighs. "Fine. I admit that my anger over what he did to Larry and other people I worked with may be influencing my opinion...I'm not going to deny it. But I don't think I'm the only one."

"Meaning what?" Jack asks with exasperation.

"Meaning isn't it possible that you're letting your emotions get in the way of your judgment here too? Isn't it possible that deep down you're still in denial and want to see him do the right thing? Look, tell me I'm wrong and I'll drop it."

Jack sighs. "You're not wrong," he admits. "Maybe you're right...we both have a lot of emotions about this situation and maybe we're both being influenced by them. But Agent Ortiz doesn't have any history with Tony and he agreed that this was the right move. Now I need to know if you're with me on this. If you don't think you can do this nobody would fault you for that, but if that's the case I need you to go back to CTU and we'll have someone else coordinate the perimeter."

"No, that's alright. I can do it," she says reluctantly.

"Are you sure?" Jack asks gently.

"Yes. Yes, I'm sure," she says, not sounding altogether too sure.

* * *

_Hope you enjoyed this...more will be up soon. In the meantime, here are a few more fill-in-the-blanks to keep you guessing about next chapter:_

1. "If someone got in the way they didn't hesitate to ________ ________...and I was no different."

2. "Kim risked her life to ______ ______."

3. "I'm sorry you never got the chance to be a ______."

4. "You're never going to be able to make peace with yourself unless you learn to ______ with the ______."


	7. Segment 7

_Here's the next part. Thanks to everyone who keeps reviewing. Congratulations to Jesse and Toxichi-BK-JA, who got the fill-in-the-blanks right or pretty close. I bolded the sentences that were in the fill-in-the-blanks and underlined the answers._

_Also, for those who did not notice, I put up a prequel to this story, that will show Jack struggling with his emotions about the Tony situation and hopefully help explain how they've gotten to the point where Jack isn't as cold towards Tony as some people think he should be. I've gotten that very valid criticism from a few readers, but keep in mind that Jack has an agenda here, and he believes appealing to Tony's better angels is the best way to get him to cooperate. Beyond that, I think this is realistic because Jack seemed more heartbroken than angry about what happened to Tony, and I think it's reasonable that he would be conflicted and even sympathetic in spite of everything Tony did to him because he understands the pain that drove Tony to where he is. After the dust settles, I could see Jack still wanting to help Tony in spite of everything because he blames himself for Michelle's death and he still believes the man he once knew is there somewhere. Hopefully the prequel will explain all of that a little better. In the meantime, enjoy this update and keep reviewing!_

* * *

"Whoa, Jack, this isn't what we talked about," Tony complains after Jack finishes explaining the mission.

"I know. I know this is more dangerous than what you initially suggested, but I figured you'd still want…"

"I don't care if it's dangerous," Tony interrupts.

"Then what's the problem?" Jack asks, sounding mildly irritated.

Tony hesitates for a moment, not proud of what he is about to say. "When I worked with Cardiff on Emerson's crew, we were pretty rough. **If someone got in the way they didn't hesitate to eliminate them…and I was no different**," he admits, looking ashamed. "As it is, Cardiff's going to be suspicious when I call him, and he's probably going to suspect that I'm working with you guys in exchange for some sort of deal. If I bring a CTU agent with me, he's going to want me to kill him to prove my loyalty, and if I so much as hesitate for a second it'll blow my cover."

"We've accounted for that. I told you before, you're going to pretend to use Agent Ortiz as leverage against his fiancée, Dana."

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't buy it?" Tony snaps.

Jack sighs. "You know the rules, Tony. You do everything you can to keep Agent Ortiz safe, but you have to consider him expendable and he knows that. I'd be lying if I said I was completely comfortable with this, but this was the way he wanted to play it. He's in charge of CTU field ops, so it's his call. I'm just here to advise."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "Uh huh," he says skeptically, thinking to himself "see how long that lasts."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Jack asks.

Tony shakes his head. "Sorry, Jack, I've known you too long."

"**Kim risked her life to save mine**, Tony," Jack explains softly. "She gave me a second chance at life and I am not going to repay her by throwing it away. I'm just helping out in an advisory capacity until this crisis is over, and then I get to go back to being a grandfather." "Oh yeah, how's Teri doing? She must be what, like two years old by now?"

"Almost two-and-a-half," Jack says with a smile.

"You got a picture of her?" Tony asks eagerly.

"Yeah," Jack says hesitantly.

"Can I see it?" Tony prompts. Jack hesitates, but eventually takes out a little photo from his wallet and shows it to Tony.

Tony looks at the photo wistfully, his sad smile masking the tears he is fighting.

"She's adorable, Jack," he says wistfully.

Jack looks at Tony's expression and his heart breaks.

"I'm so sorry, Tony," he says softly. "**I'm sorry you never got the chance to be a father**."

"Look, it's not your fault, alright?" Tony says adamantly.

"Yeah," Jack says, not sounding fully convinced.

An awkward silence hangs for a minute, until Jack breaks the silence and returns to the matter at hand.

"Listen, I understand your concerns about this operation," Jack continues. "But I still think this is the best chance we have to get to Cardiff and figure out who he's working for and what their end game is. And if you can help us do that, you can help save potentially thousands of lives, including my family. So I need to know right now if you think you can do it."

Tony considers for a moment. "Yeah," he says, his voice growing more resolute. "I can do it."

"Good," Jack says encouragingly. "Agent Ortiz is on his way here now…in the meantime, you need to get checked out by medical and get searched for contraband before they can temporarily release you. Agent Walker is making the arrangements with the warden now."

"Hold on a second. What the hell is Agent Walker doing here?" Tony asks, looking anguished.

"She's on loan from the FBI to help get CTU New York back up and running."

"That's not what I meant. I meant what is she doing _here_? Look, it was pretty obvious that Larry was more than just a coworker to her."

"Yeah," Jack says uncomfortably, his tone indicating that this is a bit of a sensitive subject.

"And you really think it's a good idea for her to have to deal with me?"

"It's her job, Tony," Jack says unconvincingly. "I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you're just going to have to deal with it."

"This isn't about me, Jack," Tony insists. "She shouldn't be here and we both know it. You of all people should understand that."

Jack sighs. Part of him knows Tony is right. "To be perfectly honest, I agree with you. It would have been easier for both of us if she hadn't decided to come with me today. But I believe that she is capable of putting her feelings aside and doing her job, and I need to know if you are."

Tony sighs. "I don't know," he admits.

"Tony, take it from me," Jack says softly. "You have to face the consequences of what you did before you can move on and start over. I know that you're trying to make up for what you did before and I respect that, but I can tell you from experience that no matter what you do from this point forward, **you're never going to be able to make peace with yourself unless you learn to deal with the past**. I know what happened with the woman from Texas, and I understand that you weren't ready, but you can't hide from the past forever."

"Yeah, I know," Tony says glumly. "I just thought I'd have a lot more time before I had to deal with it."

Jack's phone rings before he can say more.

"It's Director Hastings," he tells Tony. "Do you have any more questions or concerns, or can I tell him we're a go?"

Tony takes a deep breath, trying to look confident despite how scared he is. "Tell him we're a go," he replies. "Tell him I'm in."

Jack taps him on the arm for encouragement before leaving the room to take the call.

* * *

_Hope you enjoyed this part. More will be up soon. In the meantime, here are a few more fill-in-the-blanks for next time:_

_1. "The people who killed ______ tried to kill me too."_

_2. "I know you admire _____ a lot, but I don't think he's using the soundest judgment here."_

_3. "You do this my way, or Almeida won't be the only one we ______."_


	8. Segment 8

At long last, here is the next part. Sorry for the delay...I was stuck on the logistics of the undercover operation, but I think I figured out a plausible scenario, so hopefully the next part won't take as long. Thanks so much for all the feedback...you guys have inspired me to keep on writing, which is somehow a lot harder to stay motivated to do when the show is not on. Anyways, enjoy and please review...like I said, it helps keep me motivated.

I bolded the lines that were part of the fill in the blanks I posted...two of them are in this chapter, and two will probably be in the next chapter.

Enjoy!

* * *

Renee is on the phone with Dana explaining the plan. Dana is understandably upset.

"How do we know Almeida's not going to kill him?" Dana asks anxiously.

Renee sighs. "We don't," she admits.

"I read this guy's file...a year and a half ago, they trusted him to help the government and people died because he betrayed them," Dana protests.

"You don't need to remind me what happened," Renee says softly, trying to keep her emotions in check. "Listen, between you and me, I don't like this plan either," Renee admits. "I don't trust Almeida and I think this plan is too risky. But I was overruled…Jack and Cole both think this is the best plan, and I think we have to trust their judgment. I know you're worried about Cole, and trust me, I understand how you feel. But his life depends on your ability to do your part properly. If Cardiff even suspects that you know what's going on, Tony's cover will be blown and Cardiff will kill Cole. You have to act like you are completely caught off guard when Tony calls you...Cole's life depends on it."

"I...I understand," Dana says shakily.

"You can do this," Renee encourages.

"I hope so," Dana says, not sounding too convinced.

Jack is on the phone with Chloe outside the warden's office where Tony is being held.

"Chloe, did you talk to Morris?" Jack asks.

"Yeah...he's going to meet Agent Davis at the airfield in Teterboro, New Jersey with the modified sound equipment you requested."

"Okay, good. I need you to try to figure out a way to get at least a radius on his location so we can figure out where to stage the escape, but I need you to make sure that nothing you do could alert Cardiff to the fact that we're tracking him. I'm going to put Tony on the phone so he can explain the method he believes Cardiff would use to mask his location."

"Um, okay," Chloe says awkwardly. Jack senses her discomfort.

"Listen, Chloe, I know you're probably angry about what Tony did and hurt that he lied to you, but this is not the time to tell him that. I need him focused on the task at hand."

"Yeah, I understand," Chloe agrees. "Actually, I know this is going to sound terrible, but sometimes I find myself feeling sorry for him. I know it's kind of ironic, since I wasn't exactly the most sympathetic person when he went to jail for letting Stephen Saunders escape. But I guess now that I'm a mother I see things differently. If anyone ever tried to hurt Prescott, I think that would be enough to make me turn psychotic too. And besides, **the people who killed Michelle tried to kill me too**, so maybe I'm a little biased."

"Yeah, I understand," Jack says softly. "The truth is, I've been conflicted about it myself."

"Yeah, I kind of got that sense," Chloe replies. "That must make things kind of weird for you and Renee. I mean, she used to be with Larry and Tony killed him, but you probably feel conflicted because Tony used to be your friend...and all of her anger towards Tony is probably making you wonder if she's really over Larry enough to be with you and…"

"Chloe," Jack interrupts gently.

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business, is it?" she says quickly.

"It's alright," Jack says, slightly amused. "I appreciate your concern, but we need to stay focused right now. I'm going to put Tony on, okay?"

"Yeah."

Jack walks back into the warden's office where Tony is waiting.

"Tony, I've got Chloe on the line. I'm going to put her on so you can explain to her how you think Cardiff will mask his location, alright?"  
"Yeah, alright," Tony agrees, looking a little hesitant as he takes the phone from Jack.

"Um, hi," Chloe says awkwardly on the other end.

"Hey," Tony says uneasily. He takes a deep breath. "Listen, Chloe, I'm sorry for lying to you. I know you probably don't believe me, but I didn't tell you more about Wilson because I didn't want to make you a target."

"Not now, Tony," Chloe snaps. Realizing she sounded harsher than intended, she quickly corrects herself. "Sorry…that didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to. I mean, I appreciate your saying it, and if you want to pour your heart out later I'm all ears. But Jack says we need to stay focused, so why don't you just tell me how to decrypt Cardiff's location from his phone?"

"Yeah. The way we used to do it was instead of disabling the locator feature on the phone, we'd leave it on, but use a code I wrote to scramble the GPS signals so it would give the wrong location. I used different parameters for every phone, but I'm pretty sure the code I gave Cardiff for his phone would put him 20 miles north and 15 miles west of wherever he actually was. I don't know if it will work…he may have figured out how to modify it…but I figure it's worth a try. He wasn't much of a tech person so there's a pretty good chance he's still using the same hack I gave him."

"Alright, thanks. I'm going to try to get a preliminary read on his location so we can figure out where to stage the escape."

"Alright. Just make sure you do it in a way that he can't detect."

"Yeah, got it," Chloe says, amused that Jack just said the exact same thing a minute ago.

"Look, Tony, I don't think what you did was right…that's a pretty big understatement," Chloe says before hanging up. "But for what it's worth, if anyone ever hurt my son, I would want them dead too. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I accept your apology, and I don't hate you. I mean, maybe I should after everything you did, but I don't."

Tony can't help but be slightly amused by her awkward-as-usual way of phrasing things. "Thanks, Chloe. I appreciate that," he says, managing something sort of resembling a smile.

* * *

**RANDALL AIRPORT, MIDDLETOWN, NY**

Davis gets out of the chopper and is met by two local police officers.

"Agent Davis?"

"Yeah, that's me." Davis shows his ID.

"We were told to have a vehicle for you to borrow to pick up a prisoner at FCI Otisville."

"Yeah, that's right."

"You sure you don't want backup? Normally there are at least three members of a security team transporting a prisoner."

"No. I need to handle this myself. Those were the orders from Brian Hastings at CTU."

"Alright, here are the keys."

"Thanks."

Davis gets into the car and starts driving when his phone rings.

"Davis," he answers.

"Cole, are you crazy?" Dana asks on the other end of the line.

Davis chuckles. "I guess Agent Walker explained the plan to you," he says sheepishly.

"The plan is insane," Dana insists. "You're going to go undercover as a hostage and trust someone who killed over 20 federal agents to protect you? They're going to want him to kill you to prove he's not playing them, and even if they don't, what's to stop Almeida from killing you so that he can escape?"

"The man committed crimes that could have easily gotten him the death penalty or g-d knows how many consecutive life sentences. Instead he's going to get out of there in 8 ½ years. Jack knows him better than anyone, and he doesn't think he'd be stupid enough to risk that."

Dana sighs. "Look, Cole, **I know how much you admire Jack, but I don't think he's using the soundest judgment here**."

"This plan wasn't Jack's idea," Cole admits. "It was mine. Yes, it's dangerous, but it's the best chance we have to find this guy Cardiff and save potentially thousands of innocent people from being killed. I have to consider my own life secondary…you know that."

"Yeah, I know…it's just really hard to deal with sometimes, Cole. You're always putting yourself in these crazy situations where it's a miracle you come out alive."

"Well, I'll do my best to come out of this one alive too. But if you want to help protect me, the best thing you can do right now is get off the phone and get prepared so that if Almeida or Cardiff calls you you'll be able to pull it off. My life depends on you, Dana," he urges.

Dana sighs, looking like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

* * *

Back at the airfield, the two local police officers who gave Davis the car are walking toward another police car. As they go to get in, a SHOT is fired at the bottom of the car, making the car EXPLODE. Both officers are killed in the explosion.

The pilot of Davis' plane gets out with his gun and looks to see where the shot came from. A man sneaks up from behind and shoots him in the back.

The man checks the pilot to confirm that he is dead, then takes out his phone.

"Rajesh? It's Cardiff."

"Vince? What's the status?" Rajesh asks.

"A CTU officer just left the airfield to pick up Almeida. The pilot and two local police officers have been neutralized. We're in position to take out Almeida when he gets here."

"Very good. Before you eliminate him and the agent he's with, make sure you find out what he told CTU."

Cardiff seems reluctant. "We don't have time for that," he protests. "When the two local police don't respond to their radios, police are going to be all over the scene. I'm going to wire the plane with C4 then get out of here before they find me."

"No," Rajesh objects. "**You do this my way, or Almeida won't be the only one we eliminate.**"

* * *

_Hope you enjoyed it. I promise to post more soon. Here are a few teasers for the next chapter:_

_"Tony knows who you are and he knows that you and ______ were more than just _________."_ _"This operation has _______ _______ written all over it."_ _"You don't want to spend the rest of your life _____ _____ ______."_


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